A Kriya Yogi's Kundalini Awakening in the Himalayas

A Boundary-Breaking Journey Graced by Mahavatar Babaji

Madhuri Mandava

• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781922355539
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

A "Kriya Yogi's Kundalini Awakening in the Himalayas" offers readers a deep trek not only to the Himalayas but to an extraordinary woman's spiritual awakening. She took the treacherous Siddhartha Road to Awakening that spanned over 25 years of her various spiritual practices.

Her initial aspiration to learn mountaineering had turned into a spiritual quest to attain enlightenment.

At a certain point in her life, she became frustrated with the mundane worldly life following an attack of influenza. She had moved to the United States by this time and was in the IT industry in California's Silicon Valley. One would think she had it all, but she felt a deep void inside, experiencing what is called "The Dark night of the Soul" and embarked on that eternal quest for happiness, realizing that the way is within.

She began reading books on quantum physics and metaphysics, and found no answers, before eventually stumbling upon Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), where she learned that the path of Kriya Yoga had been given to humanity to realize our immortality through self-realization and the evolution of consciousness. She started attending the SRF sessions in a local church. Dissatisfied that she had to wait for 3 years of taking classes to be initiated into this sacred science, she started praying fervently to the deathless yogi masaya of all times, Mahavatar Babaji, who goes by numerous names, Shiv-Gorakshanath, Guru Gorakhnath and so on, ironically, he is also called the nameless one and the lightening standing still. Through Babaji's grace, she was then lead to her at that time, a living master, Baba Paramahamsa Hariharananda Giri, a direct disciple of Gyan Avatar Sri Yukteshwar Giri and a peer to Paramahamsa Yogananda., and she was initiated by Baba into the first Kriya Technique.

She went into a state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi - having lost all body consciousness where she became only awareness of light, sound, and vibrations. She was walking in drunken bliss for days after her initiation. She saw visions of saints in her third eye which was opened by Baba Paramahamsa Hariharananda Giri. She saw faint visions of past lives where she was a wandering monk in the Himalayas. At this point in her life, she decided to leave all behind and leave for the Himalayas to deepen her quest for enlightenment. Baba stopped her flight to the Himalayas and told her all she needed was a small dwelling to practice her Kriya Yoga.

Her spiritual yearning lead to 25 years of practice of Kriya Yoga, a part in Himalayan caves and wandering the glaciers amidst Avalanches and Landslides. Being a mountaineer, she was fearless in her quest. She took to solitary meditation amidst the ferocious rivers like the Ganges apart from the Himalayan caves. She learned a lot from Himalayan Yogi's who enchanted her.

She experienced her final Awakening. where she became ONE with the Universe at the cave of Mahavatar Babaji that Yogananda cites in his book.

She returned back to her home in California in a deep state of bliss that lasted for several months. At this point, she felt compelled to write a book on her journey to the SELF to inspire others on this path, that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel with sincere practice and intense seeking. The road to awakening requires a lot of determination and patience. In the final stage, illusion just drops and one realizes techniques take one only this far.

Enlightenment is a natural state and was and is always there, but the duality of Maya or illusion quagmires a human being to live in delusion. Following her Awakening, she woke up and realized that the rest of the world is sleeping. 

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction: Realization and I AM PRESENCE
• 1. Spiritual Awakening in the Himalayas: My Boundary-Breaking Journey to Self Realization Graced by Mahavatar Babaji
• 2. Gaumukh and Gangotri Glacier
• 3. Tapovan – Abode of Gods
• 4. Transfixed by Mount Shivling
• 5. Awakened by Yogananda
• 6. Mahavatar Babaji and the Science of Kriya Yoga
• 7. Baba Paramahamsa Hariharananda Giri and my Initiation into Kriya Yoga
• 8. Satopanth to Swargarohini Glacier – A Trek to Heaven
• 9. Vasudhara Falls
• 10. Alkapuri Range – Source of Alaknanda
• 11. Mt. Chaukhamba
• 12. Trek to Pindari Glacier
• 13. Beautiful Khati Village
• 14. Pindari Forest en Route to Dwali
• 15. Trek to Deoriatal and Tunganath
• 16. Climbing Chandrashila
• 17. Sacred Himalayan Temples
• 18. Tibetan Journey to Holy Mount Kailash
• 19. Journey to Gorakhnath Cave Temple
• 20. Trip to Neem Karoli Baba’s Ashram
• 21. Haridwar – One of India’s Seven Holiest Places
• 22. A Surprise Transformation at Haidakhan Babaji’s Ashram
• 23. YSS Ashram in Dwarahat
• 24. My Third Eye Bursts Open at Mahavatar Babaji’s Cave
• 25. Bliss in Pandavkholi
• Appendix: Masters, Ascended Masters, and Yogis Who Were Key to My Awakening